Press

FRAMINGHAM, MA – AUGUST 30, 2004 – CMO magazine, a new business publication for chief marketing officers (CMOs), debuts in print and online today. The magazine is devoted to the corporate officers who drive the American economy and are responsible for building brands, growing revenues, and courting consumer affinity. The magazine was created to provide CMOs with the information and ammunition they need to overcome the demanding challenges and mounting pressures they face in today’s ultra-competitive, instantaneous marketing environment.

According to CMO Founding Editor in Chief Rob O’Regan, “Our goal is to deliver new information and ideas to help marketing strategists better manage and integrate a diverse portfolio of marketing disciplines and the intricate relationships that surround them. In a business climate rife with new technology,

innovative marketing methods, and intense competition, a resource brimming with best practices, useful tools, and practical advice is a valuable commodity.”

The premiere issue, carrying the cover lines “Pressure? What Pressure?” reports how marketing chiefs must prove their worth, what they can anticipate in the future, and how the next generation of innovations will affect their strategies. CMOs will recognize their peers’ voices throughout, including cover subject and General Electric CMO Beth Comstock, who in “The Survivalists” talks about surviving the first 100 days on the job: “There’s a constant tension between short and long term. There are some who believe marketing only dreams about the future…”

Not long ago, the only metric that mattered to corporations was shareholder value. Then the bubble burst, the economy tanked, and an old word crept back into the lexicon—accountability. Previously one of the least accountable functions in an organization, marketing is entering a brave, new world: one that requires a more strategic perspective of marketing effectiveness and where numbers often speak louder than words. According to industry experts like Jim Nail, principal analyst at Forrester Research, “Measurement continues to be the hardest task in managing marketing campaigns.” The challenge at many large companies is getting historically decentralized marketing groups to agree on a common set of metrics. Managing Editor Elaine Cummings reports the challenge of marketing in a world ruled by return on investment (ROI).

In Future Shock, writer Fred Hapgood uncovers five technological advances that could change the face of

marketing, and consumer-product interaction, forever.

• Internet data mining: Technology that rips through huge numbers of websites, blogs, lists, groups, and forums can provide a powerful window into the “thinking” of the consumer marketplace. Marketers can harness this emerging and evolving search technology to look for descriptions of and references to products, services and companies to measure more effectively what consumers really want.

• Virtual worlds: Online 3-D landscapes, where users are the population, have real economies and produce real results are fertile ground for tech-savvy marketers seeking a new twist on focus groups. One marketing agency, for instance, uploads clothes and other products into one of these 3-D 24/7 synthetic worlds to learn how people buy, accessorize and use them, resulting in instant market feedback.

• Decision markets: Technological platforms for developing, operating and administering prediction markets to guide product decision making are on the rise, and organizations such as Eli Lilly, Microsoft and Intel are testing this fresh concept. Despite these efforts, decision markets remain a delicate issue. Witness last summer’s controversial terrorist futures market, which the Pentagon abandoned after it became public. CMO magazine reports companies will kick the tires on decision markets until they are an accepted marketing tool, stating, “You don’t walk away from a crystal ball.”

• Neuromarketing: This emerging technology, which utilizes video MRI technology to track consumers’ brain activity, is allowing marketers to tap the subconscious like never before. The BrightHouse Neurostrategies Group, a marketing firm in Atlanta, has made the mapping of mental conditions

associated with product purchasing the center of its business model. Other companies are test-piloting neuromarketing techniques to illuminate consumers’ brand selection process from within.

• Automated behavior recognition: Technology with roots in the security industry is being transformed to assist retail marketers better understand environmetrics–how customers move about a store, for example, and how the store’s environment affects the manner in which they make their purchases. Sorensen Associates, a marketing research company in Oregon, has begun retrofitting grocery stores with systems using RFID tags to map the motions of shopping carts; this is just one example of how marketing executives can tap into technology to understand the product selection process better – and translate that knowledge into sales success.

In the first of its regular departments on marketing trends, CMO magazine reports on new innovations and

other offbeat concepts.

• Hot Dog!: Pet marketing is big business. According to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, while other sectors have suffered the effects of a weak economy, pet spending has doubled from $17 billion in 1994 to a projected $34.3 billion for 2004, which makes the pet industry

larger than both the toy and candy industries. This is sweet news to dog marketers such as Tom O’Leary, owner of Dog Spa, an upscale dog boutique–complete with bakery and jewelry section.

• Spyware vs. Spyware: Software snooping sneaks into the legislature, as efforts to stop electronic data mining heat up and lawmakers line up to smack down this bothersome byproduct of online commerce. But there’s just one problem: To snuff out Web tracking programs, spyware legislation could criminalize many common tools and techniques already in use, stifling online commerce–not exactly the intent of the law.

• Death, Electricity and Marketing: AC/DC currents (the electrical phenomenon, not the band) are more interesting than you might think. When Thomas Edison first began promoting the use of direct current instead of alternating current in the 19 th century, an electricity war exploded. The resulting marketing fallout between Edison (DC) and George Westinghouse (AC) rivaled anything the Cola wars could produce, including the electrification of a Coney Island elephant named Topsy….

About CMO Magazine:

CMO magazine and its companion website, www.CMOmagazine.com (live in June 2004), provide chief marketing officers and other marketing executives with high-level information to help them better manageall the pieces of the marketing function. The magazine provides its executive readers with a mix of practitioner-based case studies, useful tools and practical advice. Like its award-winning sister publications from CXO Media (e.g., CIO magazine for chief information officers; CSO magazine for chief security officers), CMO also provides its audience with a better understanding of the role information technology plays in justifying value and return on investment (ROI). The magazine and its online resource cater exclusively to the unique needs of CMOs in medium- to large-size organizations, across all industries.

About CXO Media:

CXO Media is a subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG), the world's leading technology media, research and event company. A privately-held company, IDG publishes more than 300 magazines and newspapers including Bio-IT World, CIO, CSO, Computerworld, GamePro, InfoWorld, Network World, and PC World. The company features the largest network of technology-specific websites with more than 400 around the world. IDG is also a leading producer of more than 170 computer-related events worldwide including LinuxWorld Conference & Expo®, Macworld Conference & Expo®, DEMO®, and IDC Directions. IDC provides global market research and advice through offices in 50 countries. Company information is

available at http://www.idg.com.

Note to Editors:

The URL links in this release are for journalists only and should not be made available to the public. If you wish to publish a URL for CMO magazine, use http://www.CMOmagazine.com.